Three Days, Three Hours, and Forty-nine Minutes
by ricojohn
Summary: Percy, Leo, and Frank are in the Apollo program when a disaster leaves Percy and Leo stranded on the moon with limited air and power. Will they ever make it home? (This is probably paranoia but I'm making this M. It should probably be teen though.) P.S. I post on request so post a review if you would like more chapters.
1. Chapter 1

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: I've had this idea stuck in my head for a while. Maybe its good, and maybe its bad.

Set up!

Percy is mission commander of Apollo 18 (The flight that was scheduled to launch but the Apollo program was scrubbed before it did.) and he and his crew mad it to the moon safely in the Command Module (CM) Neptune.

After re-emerging from signal black out on the dark side of the moon Neptune and it's Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), Poseidon, separate. Pilot Frank Zang remains in the CM as Commander Percy Jackson and Mission Specialist Leo Valdez descend to the moon in Poseidon.

They successfully land and begin their Extra Vehicular Activities (EVA), or space walks, as they are commonly known.

That's where the story picks up.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Neptune

POV: Percy

Three days, three hours, and forty-nine minutes. That's how long I've been trapped in Neptune. That's how long it takes to get from the Earth to the moon. Then I piloted Poseidon down for the landing. Now I was standing on the ladder of Poseidon, ready to take my first steps on the moon.

"Huston this is Poseidon, Beginning EVA." I said into my mic.

"Copy Poseidon," Came the crackly voice of the Communications Commander (CapCom) of ground control. "You are cleared for your EVA. Have fun Percy."

I smiled. I was on the moon!

"Thanks, Jason." I said. "Here goes nothing."

As I said this I took my first step off of the LEM and onto the moon.

I marveled at how my boot sank into the fine powder of the lunar dust.

"Leo," I spoke into my mic. "I'm going to set up the flag. Get out here and help."

"Copy, Percy." Came Leo's voice over the mic. "I'll be right out. Just running final systems check on my suit."

"Copy." I said into my mic.

As I waited I looked up to se the Earth, suspended in the darkness of space. It looked like a bright blue orb. A beacon in the dark. I could raise my thumb and cover the Earth with it from where I stood. It made me feel small.

"You have to see this view." I said in aw. "The view alone is worth the trip."

"To bad that's not why we were sent here." Leo said. "So lets go set up the seismic machines to measure the moon's activity."

I turned around to find Leo bouncing towards me.

"We still have to plant the flag." I told him. "Then we can work on your precious machines."

I couldn't see his face through his reflective visor bet he gave me a thumbs up.

"Sounds good." He said.

And so we put up the flag and saluted it. Then we put our lunar rover together so we could drive to the locations where we needed to plant the machines.

"Neptune, this is Huston." Came Jason's voice over the mic. "We need you to continue with the check list now."

"Copy, Huston." Frank responded. "I'm doing it right…." His speech was drowned out by a loud blaring noise. "Huston, (Garbled static) Pressure failure (Static) Nav ball"s all over the (More static) Oh GOD, THE HATCH! (Static)"

Eventually the static stopped.

"Neptune this is Huston." Jason said seriously. "Can you repeat your last, we didn't catch all of it."

There was no response.

"Neptune this is Huston." Jason repeated. "Do you copy?"

Again, nothing.

"Poseidon, this is Huston, Do you copy?"

"We copy." I responded.

"Flight wants you back in the LEM until we figure out this Neptune problem." Jason said in a shake-y voice.

"Copy, Huston." I said. "Returning to Poseidon now."

And so Leo and I hopped back to the LEM to wait for our orders.

Once we were inside and out of our suits Leo turned to me.

"Are we on VOX?" He asked me.

He was referring to the voice-activated mic, which would transmit every thing we were saying.

"No," I responded. "Were on Push To Talk." (PTT)

"Good." He answered. "Cuz' we nead to talk."

I frowned.

"About what?" I asked.

"Zang's dead." He said flatly. "He said he was having Pressure issues and his nav ball was all over the place." Leo shook his head. "That would mean he was leaking a gas out into space at such high rates that it acted like a thruster and started to spin him. Then he screamed something about the hatch. If the cabin was flooding with too much gasses then it's possible that it over stressed the hatch and caused the porthole to crack or the hatch to be blown off entirely."

I frowned at him.

"Our connection to Huston is relayed through Neptune." I said, skeptically. "If Neptune was destroyed then we wouldn't be able to talk to them."

Leo sighed and shook his head.

"That's running under the assumption that Neptune's communication antenna and power systems were destroyed." He said. "But if it was just a blown hatch and leaking gasses then it would only kill Frank. The ship would still be ok."

"So what are you saying?" I asked him.

"I'm saying that Zang's gone and now were trapped up here." He grumbled. "With out a pilot in Neptune we can't dock with it much less make it back to Earth."

My face went into a shocked expression as I realized he was right. If Frank was dead then our only hope of getting home was gone.

"Poseidon this is Huston, come in." Came Jason's voice out of nowhere.

The sudden interruption made both Leo and I jump.

"Are you sure we're on PTT?" He asked.

I nodded as I pushed the button on my mic.

"Huston, this is Poseidon, go ahead." I replied.

"Look, Percy." Came Jasons voice.

He sounded like he was struggling to stay calm.

"We haven't had any contact with frank and time is a factor here so were sending a rescue mission." Jason said in a hurried tone. "Nineteen is ready for its launch so were going to sent it up with Travis to come and get you two."

Leo and I eyed each other as Jason spoke. Not liking where this was going.

"What about Frank?" Leo asked, pushing his mic button.

"He's in a CM so if he's alive he can do the scheduled burn and come home." Jason said. "But if we don't launch nineteen now then you two will run out of air."

"Copy, Huston." Leo said. "Make it quick."

With that he let go of his mic button and I did two.

"So this is how it ends." Leo sighed as he shook his head. "On the fucking moon!"

"What do you mean?" I asked him. "They're sending Travis."

Leo laughed and shook his head.

"Poseidon can support two people for two days." He shouted with bitter tone. It takes three days, three hours and forty-nine minutes to get here with a pre set launch window. On the fly…" He shook his head and laughed. "My guess is for days plus a few hours."

"So we need to conserve our oxygen." I began before a thought hit me. "An our power. We don't want to run out of electricity or we'll never be able to take off, much less dock with nineteen."

Leo nodded.

"The only hope I can think of is to try and find some power cells in the storage unit of Tranquility base." He said. "By rover it would take a an hour or so. But it's the closest one to us."

I nodded.

"Sounds like we're visiting Apollo eleven then." I said.

As we suited up again I couldn't help but think of my wife back home. Annabeth was one of the smartest scientists I knew and I was often amused that she married me. I mean I'm nothing more then a crazy test pilot that volunteered to get strapped into an experimental rocket and get shot off into deep space. She really could have done better but now as I was strapping into my suit I couldn't help but think I could die happy if I could just hear her voice again.

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: Well? What do ya think? Want more? Post a review. The more reviews the faster I update!


	2. Chapter 2

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: Sorry for the wait, but the story will continue!

Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Scavenging

POV: Percy

"Huston this is Poseidon." I spoke into my mic as I climbed into the rover with Leo.

"Copy Poseidon," Came Jason's voice. "Go ahead."

"Huston, we're going out on an EVA to Tranquility base to try and secure more power and air modules."

"Copy Poseidon." Jason answered. "Just don't take too long, that kind of trip is really pushing the limits on the air in your suits."

"Copy that." Leo said. "We'll just hold our breaths."

I couldn't see his face through the reflective visor but I could just imagine his smirk.

"Good luck guys." Jason said. "And come back alive, Annabeth would kill me if…." He was cut off by static.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded.

"Neptune's just on the dark side of the moon." Leo brushed off. "It's no big deal."

"It wouldn't be." I began. "If that were true but based on the last known location of Neptune and it's velocity we should still have another half hour of communication, minimal."

"The gasses might have moved it into a lower orbit." Leo pointed out. "That would decrease orbit time."

"It would." I agreed. "But without frank to do a counter maneuver it would just put Neptune into a decaying orbit."

A decaying orbit means that every pass in the orbit that the objet takes will be lover then the one before it until gravity takes over and crashes it into the surface it is orbiting.

The conversation went dead after that.

As we rode the rover over to Tranquility base Leo threw is arm out and hit my shoulder.

"Stop the rover!" He cried out through the mic.

"What?" I asked. "Why?"

I shifted in my seat to see he was pointing to what looked like mettle to our right.

"What the hell is that?" I asked, trying to make out the shape.

"Looks like wreckage." Leo answered. "That means it's either one of the failed Ranger probes or a jettisoned LEM capsule."

He was referring to America's first objects on the moon which would take probes and crash them into the lunar surface and hoped they survived. The other thing he was talking about was what happened to LEM's after achieving lunar orbit and before going home.

The LEM is in two pieces, the descent and assent stages. The descent consisted of storage units and the four spider like legs. The assent stage has the engine and crew capsule in it. When it is time to leave the moon and go home the assent stage jettisons from the descent stage and fires the engine to achieve orbit. The four legs and the storage aria are left on the lunar surface right where they landed as the capsule docks with the CM.

Once the crew and anything they wish to bring home are on board the CM the LEM capsule is jettisoned over the moon on a decaying orbit.

Only Three LEM's have not crashed into the lunar surface. The LEM of Apollo 9, 10, and 13. 9 tested the LEM's capabilities in Earth orbit so it never went to the moon. 10 had a slight malfunction in the jettison after its test of capabilities in lunar orbit and wound up in a solar orbit, which means it is now orbiting the sun rather than the moon. Finally 13 was used as a life boat to return the crew safely to Earth after a almost fatal disaster on the CM. The Apollo 13 LEM "Aquarius" saved the lives of three men and was given a farewell speech by Commander Jim Lovell.

Aquarius burned up in Earth's atmosphere though.

"I don't remember any Ranger probes hitting anywhere near her." I said. "So maybe it's a LEM."

"Copy that." Leo answered. "Come on, it may have some working air filters on it."

So we drove over to the wreckage. I stopped the rover about five feet from the debris field.

"There's a lot more here than I would have thought." I answered. "I didn't know they put so much stuff in LEM's"

"They don't" Leo answered. "This is way too much for a LEM." And Leo moved to explore the debris field.

"Carful!" I called after him. "There's some pretty sharp edges in there, you don't want to rip your suit."

"Thanks, Mom!" Leo said sarcastically.

I began to slowly hop through the debris field but stopped dead when I found a partly covered by moon dust.

"Leo!" I called into my mic. "Get over here, NOW!"

I bent down and used one hand to wipe the dust off the mettle panel with a painted on American flag and one black painted word below it.

Neptune

I could see Leo's shadow on the ground next to me and knew he was standing in back of me.

"Oh, man." I heard him say.

No one spoke for a moment before Leo broke the silence.

"We should search the wreck for air filters and power modules." He said.

"He's dead, Leo!" I screamed at him. "Frank's dead and you want to raid what is basically his tomb for supplies that aren't even compatible with our ship?!"

I turned around to face him as he spoke.

"We can adapt them to work the way the crew of Apollo 13 did." Leo replies. "By not using this stuff you might as well kill us now. Because it's not likely that well get another chance like this for supplies."

"Apollo eleven." I pointed out. "The storage unit will have supplies."

"Get real." Leo said. "The likely hood that there are any supplies in the storage unit is slim at best, and we don't have enough air to waist on pointless EVA's."

I didn't want to admit it, but he was right.

"So what?" I asked. "We just search the wreck till we find where ever Frank's body is and take his supplies?"

"Well the supplies are supposed to be accessible to the crew so they probably would be near his body." Leo replied. "I'm just curious how Neptune got here."

"Rapid depressurization caused the ship to move as if a thruster was firing." I told him. "Put Neptune inti a decaying orbit and it crashed here."

And so we continued to look for supplies amongst Neptune, the ship that had killed our friend.

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: Well? Like it? Then post a review. The more reviews the faster the update!


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